Karen Demirchyan used to walk without bodyguards and escort www.aravot.am asked Ruben Tovmasyan, the leader of the Communist Party, to compare what bodyguards the high-ranking officials of the Soviet times had had, where their escort had extended to, how many people had accompanied them etc. “In Soviet times, there was no bodyguard, what should I compare?” Comrade Tovmasyan said.
In response to our question whether they hadn’t been afraid for their lives, he said, “What should one be afraid of, when one works for his people. An assistant of Karen Demirchyan, the first secretary of the Central Committee – I was the first secretary of the Shahumyan Regional Committee at the time – would run upstairs and say ‘Comrade Tovmasyan, he wants to meet you downstairs.’ He wouldn’t inform in advance, he wouldn’t tell to prepare, take notes and stuff like that. He would get out and say get in the car. I would get in the car, he would say ‘drive to the Southwestern Neighborhood, Bangladesh.’ At that time, when we were building it, it was Bangladesh. He would inspect every hole, no bodyguard, nothing. Then he would get out in Kentron and say ‘Ruben, let’s go.’ We would walk to the place, where there were many shops. He would enter every shop ‘how is it going, how many types of goods do you have?’ in greengroceries… If they said, there was no watermelon, he would turn to me, as if I was to blame and would say ‘check watermelon in this shop tomorrow.’ Not like… what is this, anyway? When I talk about system, you think I am a Communist, therefore, I talk about it.” In response to our question whether they had walked without fear, because the society had not been so criminal at the time, he said, “Why not, there were people who would ask difficult questions, but smart questions, very difficult questions.
However, Demirchyan and the Central Committee secretary or the regional committee secretary or the director of Kanaz, the Armenian Electric Factory who managed more state property than many rich people combined have today. Who would think that he should bring anyone with him, that one would say ‘why have you come here,’ pinion him and kick out?”
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In response to our observation that there had been a few assassination attempts against Ruben Hayrapetyan, therefore, he was concerned about his life, he had bodyguards and there had been no assassination attempts against Karen Demirchyan, he said, “In this case, we have to compare why there are assassination attempts. When you find why there are assassination attempts against people, everything will be clear. The people lived, they had what they wanted, if there were drawbacks, those drawbacks would be quickly fixed. This is the whole essence, not… What bodyguard?”
Zaruhi Postanjyan, a Heritage Party MP, mentioned recently how ordinary governors came to the National Assembly and blocked whole Demirchyan Street with their escorts. Particularly, the escort of Suren Khachatryan, the governor of Syunik, comprised of 12 cars grabbed her attention. Ms. Postanjyan even counted the cars escorting the president – 30. In Ruben Tovmasyan’s assessment, “Let me tell you that not only a governor, but a head of a condominium in the city of Yerevan, when he walks, there is necessarily someone or two people accompanying him. If you say something to him ‘this flower is not straight,’ they will say ‘did you say it is not straight?’ etc. We have governmentally encouraged building such a system. When we stop encourage it governmentally, everything will return to normal.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
